Geekulcha Council of Advisors

Collective minds to nurture the Geek Culture

Helping Shape the Geek Culture

The Geek Culture is growing fast in South Africa with a lot of hackathons happening, meetups, participation by females is also gaining momentum and other activities on the ground.
Given the growth angle, there is a need to nurture and shape the digital scene we all want to see.

#GKCouncil:Caree

Geekulcha is calling on industry leaders to volunteer and serve on the Geekulcha Council of Advisors in South Africa.
These will be a collective of minds and help shape and to sustainably grow the Geek Culture in the country.

The Geekulcha Council of Advisors seeks to nurture the Geek Culture in South Africa for a competitive tech ecosystem and capacity for the job market.

Tech Ecosystem

Open Innovation

Empowerment

Smart Industries

Geekulcha Advisory Council Members

The following is a 12-member Council of Advisors set to help shape the Geek Culture in South Africa

Jayshree Naidoo [Yied_i]

CEO

Jayshree Naidoo is the CEO of YIEDI, a company that focuses on Innovation and Strategy Consulting, Incubation Design and Management, Entrepreneurship and Supplier Development and Digital and eLearning solutions.

She has developed several frameworks and models for Innovation and Incubation and has created several structured acceleration programmes for Start-ups and Growth Entrepreneurs as well as Leadership Programmes for Corporates.

She was the founder and Head of the Standard Bank Incubator programme and space that focused on growing and developing entrepreneurs and improving the innovation stack of the bank and its corporate clients. The seven pillar Incubator model that she created was also applied to launch the 1st Incubator outside of South Africa for the bank within Maputo in Mozambique.

She has held several leadership roles in SA that include positions at Development Bank of Southern Africa, Discovery, ABSA and Internet Solutions. She was previously the CEO of Feenix, a crowd funding platform for students launched by the bank, a board member of JASA (Junior Achievement South Africa), as well as the Chairperson of SAINe (The Southern African Innovation Network), and held a seat on NACI (The National Advisory Council on Innovation).

She is a professional speaker and has presented at several public and company conferences both locally and internationally and has been featured in several magazines including CEO Magazine, SA Innovator, Destiny, Fast Company and has been published in the Innovation Journal. She is a guest lecturer at many of SA's top universities on the topics of Innovation, Incubation, Strategy and Digital Disruption. She was previously identified as on of the Top 25 Global FinTech Influencers.

She has local and international experience in the fields of strategy, consulting, innovation, entrepreneurship and e-commerce. She has worked in the following sectors: Technology, Manufacturing, Health Insurance, Finance, Development Finance and Education. Her qualifications include an MBA, CAIB (SA), Honors in E-Commerce and IT.

Atenkosi Ngubevana [Geek_in_U]

Founder

Ati is a program manager who is currently employed in the capacity of managing a digitisation program over the EMEA, LATAM and APAC region.

Amongst her portfolio of work, she is currently leading a program of deploying Robotics Process Automation (RPA) software that is set to change the future of work, especially in the Finance and Business Process Outsourcing Industries.

She is the founder of Geek_in_U, which is a Non-Profit Organisation that teaches pre-adolescent children how to code and build robots. She is a current Wits Business School MBA student and aims to share her business skills to young, upcoming techpreneurs. Her passion lies in equipping the South African youth with skills that will enable them to be self-reliant in their future endeavours.

Keitumetsi Tsotetsi [PwC/Geekulcha]

Manager: Cyber Security

Keitumetsi Tsotetsi holds a BCom IT Management degree, Post Graduate Diploma in Management specialising in corporate governance and is an ISO27001 BSI Certified lead auditor.

She is a cyber security manager and specialises in security risk, strategy, governance and compliance. Her expertise include cyber maturity assessments, role based security awareness programmes, ISMS implementation, policy/standard development, programme assurance and privacy.

Keitumetsi is the special projects lead at Geekulcha and has been with the organisation since 2013. She has been assisting the team with the planning, facilitation and judging of hackathons. In addition to this she has represented the organisation on many public speaking platforms and has valuable internal knowledge of the organisation to facilitate further growth.

Lee Annamalai [CSIR]

Manager: SMART Systems Group

Mr Lee Annamalai has a Masters Eng (Electronics) Pretoria and Executive Development from Univ Of Stellenbosh. Up until 2008 he had spent 9 years with the CSIR, 6 of which were as manager of the Optronics Sensor System within the Defense Peace Safety and Security Unit.

In July 2008, he was requested by the Dept Science and Technology to formally manage the establishment of the South African National Space Agency, within the CSIR, having previously being involved in the development of the Agency business case, The National Space Strategy and feasibility studies for future space programmes.

In 2010 he was appointed to the Board of the SA National Space Agency, and chaired the Business Planning, Strategy and Governance committee. He had oversight responsibility over the Agency Strategy and Organizational Performance.

In 2011 he rejoined the CSIR at the Meraka Institute, to head up the Earth Observation and ICT team and currently is manager of the SMART Systems Group with an emphasis on digital disruption technologies for Industry 4.0.

He has assumed leadership and innovation management roles in the Electricity Distribution Restructuring of South Africa, Feasibility of projects in the National Space Programme, New applications and Commercial Solutions development in Earth Observation using Space Technologies, strategic equity partner at Aurecon and co-founded Optronics Africa.

Mr Annamalai has 17 years of experience in engineering and technology management and business turn-around, inclusive of; lean start-up, Technology, Research and innovation program management (multiple projects), business governance, Engineering and Entrepreneurial Human Capital Development, Business Strategy and implementation.

Vincent Hoffman [Inquisition]

Design Director

Vincent is the co-founder of Inquisition, SiGNL and The GoodWork Society.

Inquisition is an employee experience design firm, which designs better ways for people to learn and create together. SiGNL is a creative technology company which explores ways technology can help people to live better. The GoodWork Society is an activist collective which looks at ways to prompt organisations in South Africa to create opportunities for employees to do dignified good work.

Vukosi Marivate [CSIR]

Data Scientist

Dr Vukosi Marivate leads a Data Science research team at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research(South Africa). He works to uncover insights from data and use them to inform and make an impact on society.

Having developed and used methods in application areas such as Safety and Security, Renewable Energy, Public Utilities, Health and more, Vukosi brings in a cross cutting view of Data Science.

Vukosi organises a Data Science internship program at the CSIR that seeks out talented young people to train in the Data Science field, with a focus on Social Impact. The program has increased the number of students interested in the Data Science field in South Africa and further opting for research careers (exemplified by alumni pursuing Masters and PhD degrees in related fields).

Faith Tembe [Standard Bank]

ED Manager

Faith Tembe is a vibrant young professional with a passion for purpose driven work. She is currently an Entrepreneur Development Manager at Standard Bank focusing on providing support to ICT SMMEs. She has an Honours Degree in Industrial Psychology and currently doing a Masters of Management in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation.

She draws her experience from the corporate environment with specific focus on Innovation and Transformation management.

I am passionate about contributing towards the prosperity and improvement of our beautiful continent. It’s increasingly becoming evident that entrepreneurship and innovation will be the biggest driving force for unlocking growth and economic inclusion across Africa. I am also a firm believer in ‘Africa Rising’ phenomenon which speaks to young Africans solving systemic problems which we find ourselves in.

The youth (14 to 35 years old) constitute 41.2% of the South African population, but the number of young people involved in entrepreneurial activity remains extremely low at 6% of the total youth population.

Therefore, with a country faced with a high unemployment rate, inequality and poverty, it’s becoming imperative that we invest in and develop the entrepreneurial mindset of our youth, equipping them for the future. So have worked with structuring programmes which help prepare young people for success in today’s rapidly changing environment.

I am the change maverick and believe that “A global human society, characterised by islands of wealth, surrounded by a sea of poverty, is unsustainable”

Mike Barker [SAIEE.org.za]

Engineer

Mike Barker is a Consulting Engineer and Energy Specialist. He hold a BSc Elec Eng from Durban and has worked on highly serviced buildings including Convention Centres.

In the last 10 years he has worked extensively on sustainable building, including LEED Gold and Silver Projects in Nairobi and Johannesburg. He has trained overseas in the fine art of Energy Modelling and is a committee member of the International Building Performance Simulation Association.

Recently he helped run the SAIEE Smart Grids Conferences, and is a proponent of the new Microgrids industry. He coined the term #StokvelMicroGrid to focus attention on community energy projects.

Mike ran the first SAIEE Engineering Lifeskills conference back in 2000, and since then has built social media assets to support young Engineers. The SAIEE LinkedIN Groups have over 4500 members, with another 5500 Facebook members.

Siphamandla Ngwenya [Digihelp]

Software Engineer

Being an engineer for more than 5 years, Siphamandla has extensive and traceable experience in developing web and mobile applications including pro-bono initiatives. Siphamandla shows great creativity and passion when dealing with clients and as a unique developer he shows great flexibility in working as an individual and when working in teams.

Siphamandla is passionate about the work he does as evident of the great commitment he shows in ensuring that services of high calibre are offered to clients.

As an individual with great research skills, Siphamandla is always up to date with latest developments in the ICT industry and this has helped him develop new skills set. Siphamandla is always ready to give his skills back to the community whenever possible and to train aspiring software developers.

Rahab Matebane [Mapitsi Holdings]

CEO

Rahab Matebane is an astute business woman, mother and a community builder. She is the CEO of Mapitsi Holdings PTY Ltd, HR Consulting and Landscaping Company. A Chairperson of Excellence Awards Committee for IPM (Institute of People Management).

Her expertise lie in Human Resources (Capital), Research & Development, community development programmes, environmental research within gardening and landscaping space.

Rahab is a HUMAN CAPITAL /HR and Strategy expert, having offered these services to many corporate organisations such as IBM, Standard Bank, etc. prior venturing into her own business - Mapitsi Holdings PTY in 2007.

She is a philanthropist at heart and is also the Founder of a foundation that is involved in the mentorship of young girls. The Mapitsi foundation has adopted a school called Thagaetala Secondary school, located in Ga-Mphahlele, for which the conduct an annual career and sports day for the past 14 years.

Some of her accolades includes Ms Africa International 2018 , Brand SA Ambassador , 2014/15 Finalist of South African Premier Business Awards 2014/15 Finalist of South African Premier Business Awards

Ali Rodolo [Kakanyo Business Solutions]

MD

Ali Rodolo is the founder and CEO of Kakanyo Business Solutions, a niche consultancy focusing on Business Intelligence/Analytics, Business Process Management and Management Consulting. He has over 20 years experience in Software Development, Information Management, Project Management and Business Process Intelligence.

He has worked extensively in Financial Services (Banking, Insurance, BankAssurance), Telecoms and all spheres of Government.

Charity Chirowamhangu [Banking Sector]

IT Security Manager

Charity Chirowamhangu expert in Cyber Security, IT Risk and Assurance for the past 14 years. Previously worked in the Big Four and has been in the Banking and Financial Services industry since.

She has a passion for Cyber security and, over the years, has gained local and international significant knowledge and experience in both the technical (operational) and management areas of Cyber security. Previous roles have included working in Dubai and India.

Her qualifications include an MBL, CISSP, CGEIT, CISA, and Honors in Information Systems and Business Management.